Investment Services Group (ISG) has rebranded its Select KiwiSaver scheme under the banner of sister firm, JMI Wealth.
Launched in 2020 with the NZX-owned Smartshares as host, the Select KiwiSaver targeted distribution via associated financial advisers.
However, the scheme has struggled to gain much traction, reporting just $10 million or so under management at the end of March this year across its suite of three diversified funds.
Richard O’Brien, ISG chief, said the name-change reflected the fact JMI Wealth has been “responsible for managing the assets of the funds within the Select KiwiSaver Scheme” since inception.
“There will be no other changes happening in terms of the operation of the Scheme, with JMI Wealth continuing to apply its investment management expertise in the same way as it has over the last three years,” O’Brien said. “We are expecting to promote the JMI Wealth KiwiSaver Scheme through various channels over the coming months.”
The ISG group also includes Devon, Clarity Funds and the Select Wealth discretionary investment management services platform.
Elsewhere, the Premium range of three Asia-centric funds is set to transfer to new owners, the Australian global equities manager, Antipodes, next week.
Antipodes bought the management and distribution rights to the Premium China, Asia and Asian Income funds late in March with the transition slated for April 22.
Post transfer, Antipodes will take direct portfolio management control (under John Stavliotis) of the two Premium equity funds – the China and Asia strategies – from previous outsourced Hong Kong-based manager, Value Partners.
However, Value Partners will continue to manage the Premium Income funds.
Founded in 2005 by Sydney-based father-and-son pair Simon and Jonathan Wu, the Premium funds have gathered about A$200 million for the niche strategies from advisers in both Australia and NZ.
Jonathan Wu, due to join Antipodes in a consultancy role, said the new owners would throw “further fuel on the fire” to help grow the Asia-focused funds.
Wu said Antipodes – part of the ASX-listed Pinnacle multi-boutique group – shares a similar value bent to Premium as well as an interest in Asia stocks (including an overweight position in China).
Both value and China equities have suffered in recent years but he said the investment style and regional focus offered good opportunities for patient investors.
Antipodes has raised over $50 million in NZ across two portfolio investment entities (PIEs) – via hosting firm, FundRock NZ – investing in global equities, one long-only and another offering long-short exposure.
If there was enough investor interest in NZ, the ex Premium funds could eventually be packaged as PIEs, Wu said.
Premium was represented in NZ by third-party fund marketing firm, Heathcote Investment Partners, but will now drop out of the stable.
Meanwhile, another manager in the Heathcote suite, Janus Henderson, rolled out a NZ dollar-hedged version of a fund-of-hedge-funds last week – albeit aimed solely at institutional investors.
The new Kiwi currency version of the Janus Henderson Global Multi-Strategy Fund feeds into an underlying Australian unit trust that launched in 2020.
Targeting an annual before-fees return of 7 per cent above the NZ official cash rate, the fund taps into seven common hedge fund strategies such as convertible arbitrage, event-driven and market-neutral.
David Elms, the UK-based Janus Henderson head of diversified alternatives, said in a release: “Our philosophy is that diversification works well in up markets but can be unreliable in down markets. You only have to look back as far as March 2020 when investor panic caused risk assets to fall in a synchronised manner. This fund addresses those types of challenges by having a protection strategy that is the mirror image of the diversified return-seeking strategies we use to generate returns in more normal markets.”
Elms shares portfolio management duties on the fund with the US-domiciled, Steve Cain.
According to a Janus Henderson spokesperson, the NZ dollar version of the multi-strategy fund has yet to be seeded.
“However, Janus Henderson Investors already manages more than A$60 million on behalf of NZ investors [in the Australian dollar-denominated fund],” the spokesperson said.
“There has already been demand from the NZ market for this fund and its launch is in response to investors telling Janus they’d benefit from having the option of a NZ dollar version available as well as the Australian currency version to be able to better suit their clients’ needs.”
Investors need a minimum of $5 million to buy into the Janus Henderson vehicle, which has annual management fees of 0.7 per cent, indirect costs of 0.08 per cent and a performance fee of 20 per cent of returns above the benchmark and “subject to the high water mark”.
